U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., is calling for a ban on gambling on elections.
A federal judge overturned a decision last week that previously rejected legal gambling on U.S. elections.
Merkley said with just two months before an extremely consequential election, this should not and cannot happen. Merkley argues that it interferes with the integrity of elections.
“It really reduces elections to a horse race that cheapens and weakens our democracy. You’ve converted a competition about leadership and ideas and character into a competition about how do I make the most money?” Merkley said Thursday.
Merkley has already discussed his bill to ban election gambling on the floor of the U.S. Senate. He wants election gambling banned for races from national all the way down to local.